New Year, New Food

Last week Sunday, we had our annual Chinese New Year dinner at my parents’ house. Daniel, Tawni, and Nathan came down from Logan with Jacob, Rachael’s Utah State college kid, in tow. They don’t come down just for Sunday dinner very often, but this is the one that none of them want to miss! We had some traditional and delightful foods on hand such as char siu bao, wontons, rice, broccoli beef, chow fun noodles, etc. And of course, we had gau. My mom has been struggling more and more as the Parkinson’s progresses, and this time around, she let the rest of us carry most of the load where food prep was concerned. As such, Rachael made gau for the first time ever. Gau is pretty easy overall, but there was a bit of a learning curve. For some reason, the gau was even stickier than usual and because she forgot to oil the banana leaves in the pan before pouring the batter in, peeling the leaves away was a monumental task. There was much laughter as we worked together to slice off chunks of gau and peel away the leaves so the confection could be consumed. I had to wash my hands long and hard twice before they didn’t feel sticky anymore. LAUGHING WITH TEARS SMILY

Tawni reminded us that it was exactly a year ago when she met the extended family for the first time. This past year seems to have gone by so very quickly but at the same time, having Tawni around feels totally normal, not new at all. She loves to cook, and that desire to create delightful meals has extended to include all these Chinese dishes that I grew up eating. I’ve mentioned before that my boys are embracing their food heritage and learning how to make all these things and having Tawni jump on the band wagon adds another person who can pass these traditions and skills on to the next generation. In fact, the kids planned to create a Chinese New Year dinner of their very own on the actual day and my mom sent Tawni home with pork hash, wonton wrappers, and who even knows what else to facilitate that plan!

As for me, I’ve also been learning how to make some new foods. Last week I made several small batches of gau. One small batch was steamed because honestly, the bit I had of Rachael’s was just not enough. It is one of those once in a while kind of desserts that I just love but only eat about once a year. The remaining small batches were experimental microwave cooked batches. I was preparing a box to send to Matthew, a themed assortment focusing on his birthday and Chinese New Year and wanted to be able to send him the needed ingredients and instructions to make gau. While I have seen several sets of instructions for cooking gau in the microwave, it was not something I had tried. And as Matthew would be making only a small amount rather than a full sized gau, the cook times would obviously need to be adjusted. Hence the experimentation.

My first attempt was a total failure. You can’t judge whether or not gau is done with a simple toothpick test like you can with cake. No matter how long you cook it, it is always super sticky when warm. You can let it cool completely and then check texture but even then, it can be remarkably viscous. Last year I made the gau, let it cool, popped it out of the pan the day afterwards and then steamed it some more because it was not fully cooked. But this time I was not so good at waiting hours and hours for it to cool, so I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants. The end result was that I cooked it far too long and once it cooled a bit, it was completely hard. And by hard, I mean it would not come out of the pan and had absolutely no give at all, not even the rubberized feel of super dense gau. It was literally a rock of rice flour and sugar welded to the Pyrex dish I cooked it in. It took two days of soaking in the sink, with me scraping off layers of gau as the water softened them, before the dish was clean. It was a serious fail. But with that knowledge in my arsenal, my next attempt was much closer to what I wanted it to be, and the third one yielded the desired results. 

Today is the actual lunar new year and my creations, while less varied than last week’s dinner, were delightful. I have made char siu bao many times and so that was an easy one. I also made homemade potstickers, which are not all that tricky. But my proud moment dish was jin dui, Chinese sesame balls, or as my mom describes them, Chinese doughnuts. This was the very first time I have attempted to make them, so I spent some time online searching for tips for success, you know those little things that people intuitively do when they have long years of experience but never write down as part of the recipe. And my attempt was not half bad. They puffed up like they were supposed to and came out nicely rounded and crispy. I was pretty proud of myself! Having said that, there was definitely a learning curve. I used my great Aunty Simmy’s recipe as a guide, and her filling was a combination of coconut, peanuts (although I used almonds instead so there would be no fatalities in my house this evening), and a bit of sugar. It was a loose filling rather than the more common paste fillings and it was exceedingly difficult to get it inside the balls of dough. I was only able to put just a tiny bit in and still get the dough to stay nicely sealed without cracking. And the dough itself was far too wet. It was more of a batter than a dough and I ended up needing to add a lot of additional rice flour to make it workable. But even with those challenges, I feel like the end result was pretty good. I will decrease the amount of water quite a bit next time and I will be looking for another filling recipe. The coconut filled ones you can get in Hawaii are my favorite ones, so I want to find a recipe for a coconut paste of some sort that I can roll into a ball. That and a drier dough should make shaping them much easier. I know I will be trying again at some point, and hopefully the results will be even better.

So, this evening’s repast was largely a success. While Kevin and Malia were not all that enthused about the jin dui, the bao and potstickers were enjoyed all around. And I have tucked a few jin dui into a bag to send to my mom. She really likes them and I don’t need to eat an entire recipe by myself! 

As for my college kiddos and their Chinese food offerings, Daniel called me to ask how hot the oil should be to fry wontons. I was totally channeling my mom or something because the first thing that popped out of my mouth was, “Hot enough.” FACE PALM EMOJI You know how your sixteen-year-old self vehemently declares that you will definitely not grow up to be like your parents? Yeah, it would seem that I have severely disappointed my inner teenager in some ways. LAUGHING WITH TEARS EMOJI But, I did thereafter give a more helpful response and the wontons cooked up beautifully. Daniel shared a comment made by Tawni’s sister Charlotte: “I can still squeeze behind Tawni’s chair, therefore I can eat another wonton.” I guess that means they tasted just as good as they looked!

More Chinese…Even Though I’m Less Chinese

We had our extended family Chinese New Year dinner ten days ago, but since today is the actual Lunar New Year, we decided that some more Chinese food was in order. This year that meant eating our own body weight in char siu bao, a favorite for all of us and one of Matthew’s basic food groups. 😉

We also had some more gau. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the stuff to cook at our altitude and thus far, the pressure-cooking method was the only one with which I’ve had success. I was talking to my mom yesterday and she told me how she made little ones with only a two-hour steaming time in her water well rice cooker. I don’t have that kind of rice cooker, but the recipe she uses also offers some tips on using bamboo steamers, which I do have, so I just had to try it to see if I could replicate it. I did get it to work, but it took six long hours. I actually took it off the heat after five hours because it was late last night and I really needed to go to bed, but I put it back in the steamer for another hour today and it finally did finish cooking. Seriously, sometimes I wonder if I’m just not quite Chinese enough to be able to work some of this Chinese food magic. 😂 BUT, it did cook eventually.

Matthew and I were both excited to eat some more gau, and Malia decided she was going to try it again. She has actually been really fantastic about that lately. She has been trying all kinds of new things, knowing that if she still doesn’t like stuff, we won’t make her eat it. And some things she still hates. And that’s ok. So, she ate some gau…and then she voluntarily ate some more. This time she decided that she likes it! I was honestly super surprised, but she said that it is better warm, and today’s batch was definitely fresh and warm.

I think next year I’m going to try replicating the water well rice cooker with a pressure cooker rack in a stock pot. Maybe having a smaller space will make things cook more quickly. But just in case it still takes forever, I’m going to start early in the day so that I have time to let it finish cooking long before bedtime!

(See how the shallow one is cooked but the taller ones need a bit more time? Another hour of steaming remedied that problem.)

Translation: "Wishing You Great Happiness and Prosperity"

Tonight was the annual extended family dinner celebrating the Chinese New Year. My sisters, my dad, and I convinced my mom to simplify things a bit, which was a good thing. There was still plenty of good food to be had though, in part because people volunteered to help a bit more than happens sometimes. And the most important parts of the feast were still there, of course-bao, wontons, gau. At least those are the most important parts in my opinion. Malia tried gau again, even though she despised it last time. But Kate was pretty much daring her to eat it, so she finished a small piece just to prove she could, even though she still thinks it’s completely revolting. 😂

Daniel was super brave and invited Tawni to attend with him. My family can be pretty overwhelming at first just by sheer numbers. I mean, there are seven siblings plus spouses and children and my parents…it adds up pretty quickly. And while most Sunday dinners have seen lower attendance of late, Chinese New Year is the one that no one misses. So, it’s a lot of people and a lot of noise. But Tawni was not cowed by the situation. She was talkative and answered questions and tried all the food, even the weird stuff, and pretty much, by the time the evening was over, she had won all of us over, even my parents. 

My little portion of the insanity lingered a bit longer than most of the others. And like always, levity ensues when we are together and Tawni just rolled with it. Which is good. Because sometimes people get all deer-in-the-headlights when the puns start rolling. But she jumped right in. I’m really beginning to like this girl. Not only does she bring out the best in Daniel, but she fits right in.

It was a highly enjoyable evening. We ate too much and talked too much and laughed too much (if that’s possible) and had a fantastic time. Gung hay fat choi. May the next year be a happy one.

Let Them Eat Cake…and Cookies…and Bao…

Today is Matthew’s birthday. He is officially halfway between being a teenager and hitting his twenties. But if I think about it that way, it gets too real too fast, so I’ll just stick with the actual number which is fifteen. Matthew gave up themed birthday cakes and parties quite a few years ago, even younger than the other boys if I remember correctly, so things were super laid back. 

We celebrated Matthew’s birthday with my family on Sunday. It also happened to be the Sunday we celebrated Chinese New Year, which worked out perfectly because Matthew loves bao, wontons and rice, all of which were on the menu. To go with the Chinese theme, he selected Chinese Almond Cookies as his birthday treat. The fun thing about the cookies this time around is the fact that Daniel designed and 3D printed a cookie stamp for me as part of an assignment last semester. It has the Chinese character for family, which is perfect since celebrating our cultural heritage is a big part of our family life. He forgot to flip the image so it would be oriented correctly when stamped, but he is working on making a new one which will stamp things the right direction. Details aside, it works great and the cookies looked fantastic!

I usually let the kids select the menu for dinner on their birthday, but I didn’t let Matthew choose this year. I knew, however, that he would be totally fine with my food selections. We had bao, potstickers, teriyaki beef, and rice, all homemade and from scratch, as I’ve been expanding my Chinese food repertoire over the past several years. It is like Matthew’s most favorite menu ever. He got to eat Chinese food twice in one week and was terribly happy about it. In fact, he liked it so much that he had to get a second plate to hold all the tasty options. Matthew did choose the cake though, and opted to go with cinnamon swirl cake, an all-time family favorite. He wasn’t too keen on lots of candles this year, but he did let us use one and sing to him.

Gift wise, Kev and I gave Matthew a cool Lego Ironman set, another plastic airplane model (just in case what he got for Christmas was not enough to last him until the next gift giving event), and some Cat in the Hat socks. The socks are identical to a pair he got for Christmas a couple of years ago. Several months ago, I noticed that the Cat socks had huge holes in the heels, and he was wearing them over another pair of socks. When queried, he told me they were his favorite socks, and he was doubling up so he could continue to wear them. I decided a new pair of striped Cat in the Hat socks was in order and was able to purchase another pair. Nathan handed Matthew some cold hard cash to help pay for a new watch band for his Apple watch. Malia is in the process of drawing him a dragon. She’s not done yet but is working on a special drawing just for Matthew. 

Matthew has a few friends coming over on Saturday evening to round out his celebrations. He doesn’t want special treats or anything, just some fruit snacks. The invite list includes only about six people and the plan is to play some board games and watch a movie, so it should be a fairly mellow gathering. Mellow or otherwise, being able to spend time with friends is good and I’m so grateful for this little group of friends that has stuck with and supported him for years. 

As Matthew has gotten older, he and Daniel have become pretty good friends. In fact, Daniel texts Matthew far more often than he reaches out to Kev and I and we are ok with that. Matthew and Nathan don’t bicker as much as they did when they are younger, and I think they are on track to being friends as well. I love to see their relationships strengthen as they get older and they hang out with each other by choice, not just by default of blood ties. Matthew loves playing his trumpet, especially if he is playing jazz, and the joy he finds in the music is evident in his face. He really enjoys being on the stage crew at the middle school and has a particular passion for lighting. His favorite card game is “And it Came to Pass” and he can hardly wait to get his braces off so he can eat Starburst again. His food preferences have expanded over the past year or so and he has discovered that he likes some things he was never willing to try in the past. His food limitations are always a hurdle for him in a variety of different ways, but he has learned that being a careful and responsible eater doesn’t have to be boring. 

When I think about the place that Matthew has in our family, I think about the fact that having a third boy was a bit hard for me emotionally. However, it didn’t take me long to realize that Matthew was a much-needed addition to our family. By the time he was born, Kev and I had become too serious, a bit worn down by the realities of life. Matthew, in all his toddler glory, helped us learn to laugh again. And we sorely needed it. Even now, paging through the blog books from his younger years is a surefire way to lighten my mood. I can’t imagine our family without him. 

Oh, and as a last thought, Matthew already has an appointment made at the Driver’s License Division so he can get his learner’s permit. He’s soooo excited about that!

Year of the Ox

One of the ways my family celebrates our Chinese heritage is celebrating Chinese New Year. The actual lunar new year was on February 12, but today would have been the day my family gathered for our traditional big family feast in honor of the day. With our current need to social distance, I decided we were still going to celebrate. However, cooking a dozen courses all by myself seemed daunting so instead of creating one enormous feast where just one bite of everything would make me so full I felt like barfing, I decided to spread the feast out over an entire week. My immediate family was totally on board with the endeavor, of course, so we’ve spent the past week enjoying Chinese cuisine.

While I was pondering how to structure our menu for the week, I realized that while I know how to cook all the Chinese fare, I don’t usually bother with the exception of teriyaki and a variety of stir fries. I know my mom will make things for our Sunday dinners fairly regularly, so I just enjoy it on those occasions. But the accompanying light bulb was the fact that if I don’t teach my kids how to cook these traditional dishes, they will lose that part of their culture. That is something I definitely don’t want to happen, so as often as possible, I included the kids in the creation of the past week’s meals.

We started our weeklong ethnic food experience with the sweet courses, because who doesn’t like to eat dessert first once in a while? Our treat for family home evening on Monday was Chinese almond cookies and gau. The cookies are always a favorite around here, but gau receives more mixed reviews. Daniel, Nathan and I like it while Kevin, Matthew and Malia give it a hard pass. And I’m ok with that. It is actually pretty weird by American standards. I did learn that due to our high altitude, gau doesn’t cook well if you try to steam it the same way you would at sea level. But once I consulted with my mom and broke out the pressure cooker, it came out just right.
 

 

On Tuesday we enjoyed Hawaiian style chicken long rice. While it may not be traditional Chinese fare, my mom grew up in Hawaii so elements from other cultures are mixed up in our traditions. When they are as tasty as chicken long rice, I feel like it is a boon rather than a diluting of the traditions. And it is a reflection of my family heritage. Matthew and Malia absolutely love this particular dish which means I made lots so there would be enough to go around. And I made Malia earn her portion. She sat and shredded all the chicken once it was cooked.

 

Dinner on Wednesday was composed of Chinese chicken salad and shumai. Malia was my sous chef again and help me assemble all the shumai. They are supposed to end up looking like little meat filled baskets, but she thinks outside the box (or the dumpling) and decided she liked them much better shaped as little flowers. They were definitely cute, but due to the fact that they had shrimp in them, she didn’t actually end up liking them. Next time I make them I might have to be a nice mom and leave the shrimp out of a few so she can actually enjoy the fruits of her labor. But for those of us who like seafood, they were delicious. Definitely something we want to see on our menu again.

 

Thursday was our fried rice day. This is a meal that we have more regularly, but I don’t make it the way you usually see it in restaurants around here-rice with some ham, peas and egg. I make it the way my mom taught me-rice with some ham, a plentiful amount of various tasty stir fried veggies and egg. That way it is a full meal rather than just a side dish. I always make one big pan with all the fixings and one small one without the egg so Matthew can enjoy it as well.

We celebrated the arrival of the weekend by eating stir fry noodles with char siu pork on Friday. While I was in the planning phases of this big adventure, I discovered that the char siu seasoning packets I’ve always used have a cross contact warning for peanuts, so I made the char siu from scratch this time. Let me tell you, it was well worth the extra time. It was absolutely delicious. Matthew told me that we never need to use the packets again and I agree with him whole heartedly. We broke with tradition again because didn’t use the traditional egg noodles. Matthew can’t eat them which is why we ditched them, but the egg-free yakisoba noodles we used instead were entirely delicious. Because of the egg noodles, this is one dish Matthew can never eat when we gather with my family. That was a huge perk to doing our food celebration on our own-Matthew could eat everything. 

Saturday was dim sum day. With everyone at home (including Daniel), I had plenty of helpers when it came to creating all our tasty morsels. We enjoyed char siu bao, sweet bean paste bao, wontons with sweet and sour sauce, banana fritters, egg rolls and potstickers. We purchased the egg rolls and potstickers, but everything else was home made.

Throughout the course of the day, I discovered that when my children are involved, Chinese cooking lessons can also double as entertainment. While making bao, Nathan lost his grip and ended up with a bao floor taco. He also managed to create a bao dinosaur which is funny because he was actually trying to make a normal bao and as his attempts headed south, he turned his food into art. The other kids did pretty well with the bao and after several years of practice, I managed to create a couple that look pretty darn close to the traditional twisted top. 

 

While Nathan struggled with bao, he did just fine folding wontons. Of course, he has had lots of practice there so he had some past skills to fall back on. Malia was terribly dismayed with the sad results of her first wonton, but by her third she had it all figured out. Matthew’s first attempt was laughable, but his second was just fine. However, he is a (nearly) 14-year-old boy and he got bored making normal wontons so he got creative and we ended up with an Eiffel Tower wonton. As for Daniel, origami genius extraordinaire, he made beautiful wontons from the get go.

I think dim sum night was my favorite of the week. Yes, there is a lot of manual labor involved. But not only did we eat the foods that we generally eat least frequently, but all my little clan was here. And we all worked together to create our meal. And we talked and laughed and celebrated our heritage and had a fabulous time. And yes. I did in fact eat too much. But not so much that I felt like barfing. So that’s a plus. 😜

 

This evening we finished our weeklong celebration with our family favorite broccoli beef. We also celebrated Matthew’s birthday, but that is another post. After the whirlwind of activity that was dim sum day, today was a nice, calm day. It was wonderful to have all my kiddos here. I know that in coming years, these moments will become fewer and farther between, so I intend to enjoy them whenever they occur. And while the social aspect of celebrating with our extended family was missed, I actually really enjoyed spreading the food out so I could enjoy each and every dish. Having said that, I’m really starting to crave a good burger. 😉

He’s in His Prime!

Matthew has turned eleven! Although sometimes I forget how old he is because he small for his age, he really is on the cusp of being a young man!

As usual, we had a threefold celebration. We celebrated with my family last Sunday. It was also the day we celebrated Chinese New Year so Matthew opted for Chinese almond cookies rather than cake. We did arrange them in a big eleven and we even stuck candles in them. Matthew, who is determined so show everyone that he really isn’t a little boy anymore, even lit his own candles…although he did accidentally blow a bunch out when he blew out the first match. 😉

Matthew’s real birthday was yesterday and we had a little celebration at home. We stacked up doughnuts, lit some more candles, and sang again. We also gave him his presents. He got a little Bluetooth speaker, BYU socks and  BYU football jersey from Kevin and I, a new set of ukulele strings from Nathan and a ukulele stand from Malia.

Today he had a shindig with some of his besties. He wanted to go bowling so he invited a handful of cronies and we fed them lunch and cupcakes before Kevin took them to the bowling alley. Easy party for me, fun party for Matthew!

I remember that when Matthew was born, I thought I had boys all figured out. I already had two so adding another to the mix would be no big deal, right? I also recall that Matthew totally threw me for a loop. He was, and still is, his own person. His interests are different from both Daniel’s and Nathan’s and he has his own way of doing just about everything. But honestly, it is a good thing. He is stubborn and determined and doesn’t let much of anything get in his way. He is forging his own path and is the child that reminded me how to laugh. I love him for that. I had gotten far too serious by the time he came around and he made every day an adventure. He has been an amazing addition to our family and in spite of the struggles that have come along with all his allergies, I definitely wouldn’t trade him for someone else.

It Was a Love/Hate Thing

Over the past few years, Daniel and Nathan have gotten a lot braver about trying new foods and have discovered that they like many of the new things they try. Matthew is also a bit braver, but still errs on the side of caution. Malia is still firmly in her picky food stage as well as her allergen induced caution. As a result, I was enormously surprised when she actually agreed to try several new (to her) things this evening. The first was wontons, which got an enthusiastic thumbs up. The second was a piece of gau (which I love and which is totally weird to anyone who wasn’t raised on it). She was enthusiastic at the outset but quickly decided that it “isn’t right.” I was fine with that, proud of her for at least trying it. I thought she had finished it but was proven wrong when I discovered ten minutes later that she was still holding it in her mouth. I gave her a napkin to spit it out and then she moved on to Chinese Almond Cookies.

So gau was a no go, but she loves wontons!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

For those of you who don’t know, I am half Chinese.  That means that when Chinese New Year rolls around each year, there is a bounty of deliciousness to be had.  My mom goes all out and prepares a lip-smacking, finger-licking feast of Asian proportions…good food and lots of it!  This year she worked around everyone’s food allergies and there was only one dish that Matthew could not sample.  Unfortunately for me, I am on the same diet as Matthew while I am nursing Malia.  The goal, according to the allergist, is to give her immune system a chance to mature before exposing her to foods that she may be genetically predisposed to be allergic to.  So sometimes I see something that looks amazingly tasty, something I love and really want to eat…

(Mmmmm…hot, crispy wontons…drool...)

…and I ask myself, “Why am I doing this?!”  And then I remember…

…and (almost) happily pass over that particular bit of deliciousness.  My mom made it a bunch easier because the wontons were the only bit of dinner that I needed to avoid.

Today Matthew and I made Chinese almond cookies, another tasty treat that he usually can’t have.  But we made the necessary adjustments, Matthew did the red dots (FYI: Did you know that when splattered across the floor, red food coloring looks remarkably like blood?), and unless you were in the know you would never suspect that they were egg, dairy, and nut free.

So for those of you who may not have the blessing of having truckloads of Chinese food on your table this week, order take out and remember that long noodles are for a long life, oranges are for a sweet life, and red is a lucky color.